Persistence
by sandra70
Summary: a little chat between our fave brotp Captain Charming about True Love's Kiss and fierce women, peppered with friendly bickering, like always with these two.


David touched his glass lightly to Killian's, and they both took a gulp of beer. Granny threw them a grumpy look as they were the last clients except for two of the dwarves (and she surely could deal with _them_ ). She decided to give them a few more minutes of reprieve.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to see it through," David said out of the blue to Killian and nodded to himself.

The pirate frowned. "What are you talking about, mate?" he asked, truly clueless. "I'm always a man of my word."

David pointed his finger at him. "When we had to go back to the Enchanted Forest after Pan's curse, you said you were going to find your ship and then go back to your pirate life."

Killian tilted his head and averted his gaze. "Well, I did find my ship, after all," he murmured, unexpectedly thrown back into those unpleasant memories. "As for the rest..." He shrugged. "I tried, I thought I could get back to what I was, that perhaps it would make me forget Emma, soothe the pain of losing her." He looked back at Emma's father and was surprised to see the skin around the prince's pale blue eyes crease in amusement. He raised his eyebrows. "What's so funny, mate?"

David shrugged. "That sounds so familiar. My wife tried the same once," he told Killian. "Only, she used a spell... a magic potion that made her forget."

That was a story Killian had never heard about... but then, the life of Emma's parents had held many an adventure, and he hardly could know all of them. "Forget what?"

David waved his hand nonchalantly. "Long story. At some point, she thought that we were lost to each other forever and I was going to marry Princess Abigail."

"King Midas's daughter." Killian nodded. "And she was going to give up just like that?" He grinned and shook his head. "I'm sorry, but that doesn't sound like Emma's mother at all."

David suppressed a smile. "Well, we all have our weak moments, I suppose. Anyway, she drank that potion, forgot who I was, and it almost made her forget who _she_ was, too."

Killian raised a curious eyebrow. "And then?"

"I found her," the prince told him vaguely.

"What happened?"

David cleared his throat. "I thought I'd be smart and tried True Love's Kiss." He grinned sheepishly and took another gulp of his beer. "She punched me in the face."

"What?" the pirate tilted his head and smirked. "I mean, that does sound more like your lovely wife, but I don't understand..."

David shrugged. "Well, I had no idea that True Love's Kiss doesn't work with memory loss."

Killian put down his glass abruptly with a loud thump, to which Granny threw him an indignant look from the other end of the corner. His curiosity about David's story was forgotten. "Come again?"

"True Love's Kiss doesn't work with memory loss," David repeated, "whether it's inflicted by a curse, spell or simply amne–"

"It does _not?!_ " Killian gasped.

David shook his head and frowned in confusion. "No... but why are you so..." He interrupted himself, and his eyes widened when it dawned on him why his daughter's pirate boyfriend was so upset. "Wait – did _you_ try that when you found Emma in New York?!"

Killian tilted his head sheepishly. "Didn't go so well."

"Ouch." David crinkled his nose.

"Aye," Killian mumbled. "Got kneed in the bollocks." David pressed his lips together in a feeble attempt to hide his grin when he had a very vivid image of his fierce daughter showing a weirdly dressed stranger her attitude towards an unsolicited kiss – just like her mother had done. Killian said grumpily: "Yeah, I imagined you'd find that amusing."

David cleared his throat and tried to be serious,waving his hand apologetically. "I'm sorry. So you thought you weren't True Love, then?"

Killian scratched behind his ear and averted his eyes. "I have to admit I was afraid that perhaps I wasn't Emma's," he murmured, a shadow flying over his handsome face, and David scrutinized him closely. Killian looked back at him and went on firmly: "But I knew she was mine, and that was enough for me."

Emma's father nodded slowly, his appreciation not so well-hidden. "You were always persistent," he commented.

"A pain in the arse, you mean?" Killian replied dryly.

David chuckled and raised his glass. "That too."

Killian snorted a little laugh. "Oh, come on, mate." He clinked his glass to the other man's. "I knew, too, you wouldn't be able to stay course, you know."

Now it was David's turn to look surprised. "With what?"

Killian smirked. "Remember the time you told me you'd ensure that I would never get your daughter?"

"Yeah, well, can you blame me?" David shrugged. "I mean, it's not like you were the epitome of trustworthiness and honor..."

Killian narrowed his eyes, but he was clearly joking. "I'm a little hurt now, Dave."

David poked his finger into Killian's chest. "We'll talk again when _you_ have a daughter who comes home one day with the baddest boy in town."

Killian crinkled his nose in fake disgust. "That's not even English, and I shall have my means to keep the suitors in respectful distance." He raised his left arm and waved his hook.

David chuckled. "Good luck with that, mate. It's gonna weed out the unworthy ones, granted." He pointed a finger at the pirate. "The guy who keeps coming back in spite of that is the one you'll have to watch out for." Killian grinned to himself, knowing Emma's father was going to hide a compliment somewhere in his speech. "But in the end you'll do the same as I did."

"And what's that, mate?"

The prince shrugged. "Concentrate on the only thing that really matters." He held up two fingers of his right hand. "Actually, two things."

"Which are?" Killian inquired with interest. He knew they weren't really theorizing about future suitors for his future daughter.

David looked intently into his beer glass that was almost empty. "That he's good to her and that he makes her happy." He threw Killian a half-grumpy glance. "You'll still want to strangle him at times for exactly that, because she's still your little girl and she's looking at _him_ now like she used to look at _you_ , but..." He saw his daughter's boyfriend was observing him closely and gave him a barely perceptible nod. "You'll be glad she found someone worthy of her," he finished matter-of-factly.

 _Someone worthy of her_. Killian didn't even try to sound nonchalant. "You really think that, mate?"

"I wouldn't give her hand to you tomorrow if I didn't," David replied quickly, waving him off, as if it was no big deal. "Speaking of which... we should probably call it a night now. If we show up late to your wedding tomorrow, we both might get punched in the face." And with barely hidden amusement, he motioned vaguely towards Killian's crotch. "Or worse."

Killian tilted his head and quirked a mocking eyebrow. "Oh, mate, I can assure you, only very little could be worse than feeling a blade slowly pierce your heart from behind." He made a move with his hand as if he were holding a dagger and slowly, gleefully sticking it into someone's body, then twisting it.

David rolled his eyes. "That was over a _year_ ago!" he huffed indignantly and glared at Killian. "Just _how much_ longer?"

Killian deliberately took his time emptying the last drop from his glass. "You just stated it yourself: I'm persistent."

"Pain in the ass," David growled.

 _"Pigheads!"_ Granny's severe voice interrupted their skirmish from the other side of the counter, "Both of you!" She shot her finger at them like a bullet. "And you should indeed go home now, we all have a wedding to attend tomorrow!"

Without backtalk, they paid for their drinks and sheepishly made their way towards the door. Killian made a big show of holding it open for David and ushering him out, murmuring something of preferring not to have him in his back.

"Why do I even put up with you," David grumbled and got into the driving seat of his truck. Killian chuckled and climbed into the passenger's seat when David's cell phone beeped. It was Mary Margaret. "We're on our way," he said instead of a greeting, and Killian smirked to himself. "Yeah, I'm giving him a lift home," David muttered grumpily and threw Killian an annoyed sideways glance. "Tell her not to worry."

He ended the call, and Killian commented innocently: "See, even the ladies are worried for my safety..." But David's glare made him fall silent; even he knew when it was enough. He did find a devilish amusement in teasing Emma's parents about what had happened between their altered egos in that altered universe; tonight though he'd done it more to distract himself from the fact that for the first time in months he'd have to spend the night without his Swan – alone in their house. But her parents had insisted that tradition demanded they did not sleep under the same roof the night before their wedding, and so Emma stayed the night at her parents' loft. He missed her already.

After five minutes of driving in grumpy silence, David stopped his truck abruptly in front of the little house with the white picket fence and waited wordlessly for his future son-in-law to get off the car.

"See you tomorrow," Killian said in a peaceable tone.

"Don't be so sure," David growled, but it came out less grumpy than he'd intended.

Before shutting the passenger's door, Killian stuck his head once more into the car. "Oh, and Dave... do me a favor?"

The prince just pierced him with his death glare, anticipating another pun from the pirate – true, the man had become his mate and closest friend, but damn, on some days he could indeed strangle him.

Killian smiled, bare of any mockery now, and tilted his head a little sheepishly. "Kiss her goodnight for me, will you?"

David pursed his lips, but he couldn't find it in him to even fake annoyance. _The only thing that really matters._ He gave Killian his short nod again, which the pirate returned before entering his home. David shook his head in fond amusement. _Kiss her goodnight for me._ Now, that was some fearsome, cutthroat pirate indeed.

"Pain in the ass," he murmured and turned his truck around to head home.


End file.
